Okay. So I get that you can choose to knock down your own victories all the way to a tie. I assume that means you can choose to save only some of those victories, rather than all of them, yes? And that the saved victories must be used in the next round to cancel non victory dice on either side, or they are lost.

So say Bob rolls 8,7,6,4

And Carol rolls 5,4,4,3

Bob currently wins with 3 victories.

Am I right in thinking that Bob can only choose to save 2 of the 3, since an inconclusive tie isn't possible in this situation? If Bob saves 3, then he looses the roll, which isn't allowed, right?

Also I'm not sure about the statement on p70 about using this to avoid the effects of Total Victory. I get how to enjoy the effects I think. On the next roll you can either take out your own unsuccessful dice or knock out your opponents dice (which are all non-victory dice by definition, if you've won the roll) until their highest die number is lower than your lowest one.

So say here's the next roll

Bob: 9,8,5,4

Carol: 8,5,3,2

So Bob could use his two saved victories from last time (assuming I have that saving thing right) to cancel the 8 and 5 from Carol's roll, giving Bob total victory in that roll, right?

And I'll go on to answer the questions. The problem is, there seem to be quite a few embedded in your post. Let me know if I've answered everything you'd like to know about this issue.

1. Bob can save up to all three of his victories. Doing that (all three) doesn't mean his character's success over Carol's is canceled, in narrational terms. It does mean that if the degree of success is important in this case, say in doing damage, that whatever mechanics are derived from that number will use 0 as the relevant value. So it could mean, for instance, that he punches her successfully but inflicts no penalties at all.

2. Bob can save less than all of his victories. So in this example, he could stay with all three, or save one to all three. Whatever victories "remain" are mechanically treated as if that's how many he had rolled.

3. Your example about how to generate Total Victory with saved victories, when you didn't actually roll it, is correct.

4. Your question about how to avoid Total Victory applies to when someone has rolled it against you. For example,

Bob: 9,8,8,5

Carol: 4,4, and Carol happens to have two or more saved victories.

Carol spends two saved victories against herself, so that technically Bob wins, but has no dice "higher than his opponent's." This actually doesn't mean that Bob's action fails - it succeeds. She can't take that away. But the damage done, and whatever narrational weight might have been applied through Total Victory, are no longer available. See the first of the linked threads above for a complete treatment of this issue.